The people of Belarus have a right to know whether European countries consider the elections in Belarus as free and fair and have a right to see the documentation regarding these elections. That is why question 573 to the Committee of Ministers (Doc. 12015) hereunder was tabled in September 2009:
“1. Will the Committee of Ministers ask its Chairman to raise the lack of clarity surrounding the outcome of the 2006 presidential elections in Belarus and ask the Belarus authorities to publish the formal documentation concerning the final result of the counting of the votes in these elections and the officially validated outcome by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus? Will it ask the Belarus authorities to give the election result of each province both before and after the decision?
2. Will the Committee of Ministers ask the President of Belarus to publish the documentation concerning the decision making process on the final electoral outcome and the officially validated result of the 2006 presidential elections?
3. Will the Committee of Ministers send all the requested documents to the Parliamentary Assembly within three months?
4. What is the opinion of the Committee of Ministers on the comments by President Lukashenko concerning his own intervention for his re-election?
5. With these documents in hand, does the Committee of Ministers accept the integrity of the final outcome of the 2006 presidential election and consider the published result as a valid result and reflection of the free will of the Belarus people?”
As of yet, these questions only appear to have been discussed in the 1067th meeting of the Ministers Deputies on October 7th 2009 and no answer has yet been given. Yet, the next presidential elections in 2011 approach fast and we still do not know whether the last elections in March 2006 were free and fair.
Mr Omtzigt,
To ask the Committee of Ministers,